I came across the website http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/ the other day, and I was just so tempted by the piles of electrical componants they had that I floundered into capitalism. Just doing my bit to support the economy.
One of the problems of making (in the Make Magazine sense of the word) within Newcastle is that it’s really hard to get a reliable line on componants. Although we do have a Maplins in town, the delivery from bitsbox really puts them to shame. I ordered the lowest pack of mixed electrical parts they do, and I got such a great selection of stuff that I thought I’d do a traditional unboxing.
(Click through to see any of the pictures on Flickr)
This is what the pack looks like. As opposed to Maplins, everything is put in nice little bags, and not swimming around in an ocean of packaging. If you’ve ever ordered from the online version of Maplins, you’ll note that they give you about an elephant’s body weight in packaging, but still manage to mess up your order.
Look at that! The tiny little things are labelled correctly! In this pack, you get three different bundles of resistor, all of which are clearly labelled. Talk to the hand, Maplins, because the ordering chequebook ain’t listening.
I don’t know what these things are, but they look nifty. My flatmate suggested that they are miniature Cylons.
The pack came with a fair number of componants, including five 555 chips. The last time I tried to buy some 555 chips from Maplins, they had two in. Or they had one 555 chip and a 556 chip. I gave up on the project I was working on and went back to faffing around for a while, because you learn from being a Maplins customer that not having them in means that they never have them in. Can you feel the bitterness in my writing? Sorry.
Not only do you get a breadboard, but you also get a 9v battery! Maplin’s charge such a silly rate for breadboards that it’s untrue. What makes it really weird is that they don’t sell a lot of parts that actually fit on the breadboard, seeming to prefer to not give you anything to use on your fantastically expensive breadboard. Maybe they like to keep theirs neat? It’s a mystery.
I’m really impressed with Bitsbox – it’s a small operation, and they are providing a better service than the big high-street shops. I’ve no doubt that I’ll be picking up some bits from them in the future.
